Modi-Xi meeting: PM arrives in Qingdao for SCO Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday arrived in Qingdao where he would be attend the SCO Summit and hold bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. This will be India's first participation in the summit as a full-time member of the organisation.

The SCO currently comprises eight member states - India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. India, along with Pakistan, became the full-time member during Astana summit in June 2017. The members nations are expected to sign the Qingdao Declaration.

On Friday, the Prime Minister posted a message regarding the summit on his official Facebook account.

"The SCO has a rich agenda for cooperation, ranging from fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism to promoting cooperation in connectivity, commerce, customs, law, health and agriculture; protecting the environment and mitigating disaster risk, and fostering people-to-people relations," Prime Minister Modi said.

The declaration will hold details of the significant mechanism for resisting the global terror activities.

The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation that focuses on strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states and promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, and making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region.

"With 8 members, SCO represents approximately 42 per cent of the world's population, 22 per cent of the land area and 20 per cent of the GDP. SCO focuses on political, economic, security and cultural cooperation and enables India to engage with Central Asian countries," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted this morning.

The meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi today would take forward the discussions held during the informal summit between the two leaders in Wuhan, China, in April, said Indian Ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale on Friday.

OneIndia News with PTI inputs